Mouse cursor flickers from arrow to hand as I drag it across the screen, especially over links

When I move the mouse over anything on the screen it flickers. When I move it across a hyperlink it flickers from an arrow to a hand. This flickering is so quick and constant that it has become an annoyance and is enough to drive me back to using Safari full time. I cant figure out how to stop this. I have deleted and reinstalled a fresh copy of Firefox, but that didnt help. I tried restarting with plug ins off and that didnt stop it.

When I move the mouse over anything on the screen it flickers. When I move it across a hyperlink it flickers from an arrow to a hand. This flickering is so quick and constant that it has become an annoyance and is enough to drive me back to using Safari full time. I cant figure out how to stop this. I have deleted and reinstalled a fresh copy of Firefox, but that didnt help. I tried restarting with plug ins off and that didnt stop it.

Chosen solution

Problem resolved. I upgraded this afternoon to the latest version of Java and this issue no longer happens. Thanks for the suggestions.

Could you try disabling graphics hardware acceleration? Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.
You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).
Then perform these steps:
*Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
*In the Firefox options window click the ''Advanced'' tab, then select "General".
*In the settings list, you should find the ''Use hardware acceleration when available'' checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
*Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.
Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:
[[Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems]]
[[Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL]]
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Question owner

I want to avoid making significant changes to my environment. I do not have these problems with any other application, nor is this a problem in Safari. It just started and I cant tell if it was due a firefox upgrade or something else. Any other thoughts?

I want to avoid making significant changes to my environment. I do not have these problems with any other application, nor is this a problem in Safari. It just started and I cant tell if it was due a firefox upgrade or something else. Any other thoughts?